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February 22, 2005 at 4:07 pm

More about my Russian heritage...

As I have been writing about my grandmother (and here), I have been linking to the Wikipedia entry about Russian Molokans, the form of religion that my grandparents belonged to (my grandmother actually immigrated as a Russian Jew, but married into the tradition). Truthfully, it was surprising to find this link at Wikipedia, but I’m glad it is there. My grandmother is one of the last (if not the last) of the first-generation immigrants in my bloodline. This is almost so sad as to bring me to tears and it’s neat to think that others are out there trying to preserve a history of my past.

I also found the “official” Molokan website, which is very interesting — maybe even for those of you who aren’t even Russian. The picture here is from a Molokan meeting in 1997 (although it looks like it could have been from the turn of the century). Usually, the Molokan church discourages cameras and other recording devices during their religious ceremonies, although, along with the photographs on the official website, I found some great audio clips of some San Francisco-based Molokan meetings here.

Another thing I found was an Origin and Meaning of Molokan Surnames website. If you scroll down, you’ll find my original Russian surname: Semenischev. Although the site doesn’t say so, Semenischev means “seed seeker.” When my relatives moved to America, their name was changed to Samoff (which, as you’ll see on the Surnames website, is actually a variation of the original, Russian, Samov, which means “one’s self” ). Also present on the site are all sorts of other names that are either part of my family or friends of my family (e.g., Egorov, Kobets, Kolpakov, Potapov, Samarin, etc.) — all names I have heard throughout my life.

Immersing my family’s roots even more deeply into Russian Molokan heritage is my great-grandfather, William Samoff (also the name of my father). He was a Molokan Presbyter who is known among the Los Angeles Molokans simply as, “Beloved Pastor.” Unfortunately, I don’t know much about him other than he had a beautiful singing voice and was highly regarded both in Russia and in America.

On the official Molokan website, I also found a picture of something that sparked all sort of fun memories: a samovar. A samovar is a metal urn used for boiling water (mostly for making tea). This type of thing was a common staple among most Russian homes that I’ve visited. Another item that you can always find in Russian homes are loshki (large wooden spoons). I own two plastic replicas, though they’re just not the same.

You’ll have to do a little research in order to figure out why I posted the milk bottle at the beginning of this entry.

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Comments (4)

Ha! Good job, Chris!


Thank you so much for your prayers!

» Comment by timsamoff () (URL), on February 23, 2005 at 07:51 am